Yarn dryer drum construction



.Fuqe 11, 1957 a. P. DENYSSEN 2,795,321

YARN DRYER DRUM CONSTRUCTION Filed. Jul 16, 1955 United States Patent .YARN DRYER DRUM CONSTRUCTION Ivanhoe P. Denyssen, Merion Station, Pa., assignor to American Viscose Corporation, Wilmington, DeL, a corporation of Delaware Application July 16, 1953, Serial No. 368,280

6 Claims. (Cl. 203-280) This invention relates to textile yarn-treating apparatus and, more particularly, to means for closely and accurately controlling the drying time of yarn wound over heated dryer drums.

In the manufacture of artificial textile yarns, for example, such as rayon, it is desirable when employing certain processes to wrap the yarn around a pair of heated dryer drums. The yarn is wound around pairs of drums rotating in the same direction so that the plies of yarn between the drums form a modified helix in that the yarn advances axially from one end of each drum to the other. As is well known in the art, this advancing of the yarn turns on the drums is accomplished by tilting or biasing the axis of one drum with respect to the other.

In the drying of artificial textile yarns, however, it becomes extremely important to control very accurately the amount of residual moisture in the yarn which is in turn dependent on the time that the yarn remains on the drying drums. If, for example, the pitch of the yarn turns on the drums is inch, approximately 40 wraps could be conveniently handled on a drum substantially inches long. However, if the angle between the drum axes is varied even a few degrees, the pitch of the yarn helix on the drums can be varied considerably, and with a /8 inch pitch the drums would then store just twice as much yarn or 80 wraps. In terms of moisture content, it would take just twice as long for the yarn to pass over both drums with a /8 inch pitch than it would with a inch pitch. Therefore, in the former case, the yarn is subjected to twice the drying time than in the latter case.

The present invention, therefore, has for its primary object the provision of a simple effective means for controlling the angularity between a pair of dryer drum shafts in yarn-drying apparatus.

A further object of the invention is to provide means for adjusting the angularity between a pair of dryer drums in a yarn-drying machine while the drums are running.

A further object of the invention is to provide a pivoted yoke mount for one of a pair of yarn dryer drums and special gear driving connections which permit the yoke to be swiveled through limited angles without affecting the drive.

Further objects will be apparent from the specification and drawings in which Figure 1 is a fragmentary front view of a yarn-drying machine constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is a transverse section through the adjustable drum driving mechanism of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional detail as seen at III-III of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged view showing the face of one of the driving gears.

The invention comprises essentially the provision of a pivoted yoke in which the shaft carrying one dryer drum is journaled. A pair of adjustable set screws accessible from the front of the drying machine controls the adjusted position of the yoke with respect to the machine body drums intersect each other in this plane.

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and the other drying drum in the pair. The drum shaft on each yoke is drivingly connected to the main shaft through a pair of modified helical gears in which the ,-tice. The axes of both drums are in the same plane so that drum 5v is adjustable with respect to drum 6 by varying the angle at which the projected centerlines of the Drum 6 is fixedly mounted on a shaft 8 which is journaled in the main drying machine housing 10 in the usual manner. Drum 5, however, is mounted on its shaft 11 which is journaled vin a pivoting yoke 12 inside the drying machine housing 10. The yoke 12 is pinned to a post 13 which swivelsin a socket 14 connected to the bottom of the housing-10. The housing is apertured at 15 to provide clearance for swivelingin socket 14 and also for any desired vertical adjustment obtainable by means of suitable shims 16 between the yoke 12 and the socket 14.

Shaft 11 is journaled in the yoke by means of annular ball bearing assemblies 17 and 18 and retained therein by means of a nut 19. At a point on the centerline of post 13, I provide a gear 20 which is keyed or pinned to shaft 11. This gear 20 meshes with a complementary gear 21 keyed to the main driveshaft 22. So that the centerlines of shafts 11 and 22 can be varied from a position with respect to each other, I relieve the teeth T (Figure 4) on both gears 20 and 21 so that excellent drive is maintained even though the angularity of the gear centerlines is varied Within reasonable limits which may be on the order of 5. It will be noticed in Figure 4 that the center portion of the gearteeth T is substantially unchanged and, therefore, of the thickness ordinarily required to produce minimum backlash. However, the extremities of each tooth T are tapered to provide the requisite clearance for the teeth when the gears are tilted.

It is of vital importance that the adjustment described above which controls the moisture content in the yarn be made without shutting down the drying machine or interrupting the operation in any manner. This can be done readily by alternately loosening and tightening a pair of adjustable stop screws 25 and 26 which are threaded in the front face of housing 10 (Figure 3). Stop screws 25 and 26 contact beveled faces 27 and 28 of a leg 29 which is formed integrally with yoke 12. By loosening limit screw 25 and tightening limit screw 26, the entire yoke 12 and drum 5 may be angularly moved, as indicated by the dotted line position in Figure 3. Suitable lock nuts 30, 30 are used to retain the set screws 25 and 26 in the proper adjusted position. The leg 29 extends downwardly in the housing 10 to a position outside or beyond the periphery of drum 5 as shown in Figure 1. This permits the drum 5 to be readily adjusted during operation. Without this particular construction which enables the adjustment to be made during operation, it has been found practically impossible to achieve satisfactory results. The time required to stop the machine, reset the angularity of one of the drum shafts, and then start the machine again disturbs the continuous drying to such an extent that close control cannot be obtained.

The present invention is comparatively simple, can be fabricated with a minimum of cost, and, above all, greatly improves the quality of the yarn product because of the 3 constant ability to control the drying time and content within very close limits.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In yarn-drying apparatus of the type having a pair of yarn-drying drums and driving means for said drums, the improvement which comprises a firstdriveshaft on which one of said drums is mounted, a gear on said driveshaft, a yoke in which said driveshaft is journaled, means for swiveling said yoke about an axis at right angles to the centerline of said drum driveshaft, means for locking the yoke and drum driveshaft in a desired swiveled position, a main driveshaft for each of said drums, the projected centerlines of said shafts lying in non-intersecting relationship, a gear on the main driveshaft meshing with the gear on the first driveshaft, and a plurality of double taper-face teeth on each of said gears.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 in which the means for locking the yoke comprises an adjustable limit stop accessible from an area adjacent the drum.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 having a housing through which the swiveling driveshaft extends, a leg on the yoke extending to a point beyond the periphery of the drum, and in which the locking means comprises a pair of adjustable limit stops extending through the housing to contact the leg.

4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 3 in which the driving connection between the first swiveling driveshaft and the main driveshaft comprises a pair of taper-face spiral gears.

moisture 5. In yarn-drying apparatus of the type having a plurality of yarn-drying drums, the improvement which comprises a shaft on which one of said drums is mounted, a spiral gear on said shaft, a main driveshaft, a spiral gear on said main driveshaft meshing with the gear on the drum shaft, means for swiveling the drum shaft with respect to the driveshaft to provide limited departure from a right angle projection of the center-lines of the shafts, and a plurality of double taper-face teeth on each of said gears.

6. In a yarn drying apparatus of the type having a plurality of yarn drying drums, the improvement which comprises a shaft on which one of said drums is mounted, a gear on said shaft, a main driveshaft, a gear on the main driveshaft which meshes with the gear on the drum shaft, the projected centerlines of said shafts lying in nonintersecting relationship, means for swiveling the drum shaft with respect to the driveshaft to provide limited departure from a right angle projection of the centerlines of the shafts, and a plurality of relieved teeth on each of said gears.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 135,054 Whitehead Jan. 21, 1873 553,124 Meister Jan. 14, 1896 2,639,486 McDermott May 26, 1953 

